Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins suffer another inexcusable loss on Tuesday

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

The Pittsburgh Penguins once again allowed a multi-goal lead to slip away and they're leaving points on the table. Hunter and Patrick discuss the shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets and how this could be a big problem when it comes to their efforts to try and sneak into that last playoff spot. One issue was once again goaltending and Hunter especially isn't thrilled with the play of Tristan Jarry. Both him and Pat analyze why Jarry decided to play that puck for the second goal and why he looks so spooked in shootouts. They also discuss what the plan should be in goal for the rest of the season while shouting out Sidney Crosby, Rickard Rakell, and Erik Karlsson for their efforts. Finally, it's Warrior Helmet Wednesday so the guys give out their weekly MVP Award to the best player of the last week. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win or lose your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Penguins let another game slip away on Tuesday night in a four to three shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Pat and I are going to break down that loss. Plus give you our picks for Warrior Helmet Wednesday right after this. You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

I am one of your host, Hunters, Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunters Hodes, joined by my co-st, Patrick Damp. You can follow him on all social media platforms at Send him for Wet. And you can follow these shows, Twitter at LLO Orders for Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this episode.

Remember, we are free and available on all platforms. So, Pat, as you can see, I'm wearing my ACDC Highway to Hell shirt. First off, great band, also great song. And the Penguins were on a Highway to Hell at the end of that game last night because they blew yet another multi-goly. We're into the double digits now, my friend, in terms of how many multi-goal blown leads that this team has just, again, blown this year.

And for a while, this problem had gone away. I shouldn't say a while. For a few weeks, it had went away. It came back, obviously, in the Carolina game, came back again in this one. And Pat and I, we've been pretty nice to this team. these last few weeks just because they've been able to crawl out of this hole. They've gotten themselves back into this race. But I'm not going to be kind to them today.

I was getting ready to come on here with about nine minutes left last night to really sing the praises, especially with the way they were playing defensively. Heck, Tristan Jari was having a pretty fine game for, I would say, the first 50 to 51 minutes. But then everything just went to straight crap. When you have a three to one lead with eight minutes. to go, you are expected to win that game in regulation. I don't care if you're playing the Edmonton Oilers, the Florida Panthers, the Vegas Golden Knights.

I don't care who it is. That should be a regulation win with two points in the bag every single time. And yet again, this team blew it to a team that they have not only dominated for a long time, but to a team that's right with them in the standings. allowed them to get back in the game because Trish and Jari fumbled the puck behind the net. It's the, as the saying goes, if you're not going to play the puck, stay in your net. There was really no reason for him to come out there. He was too nervous with the puck.

I would have just rather him just stay in the net and let the defenseman take care of it because if he doesn't make that blunder, the penguins probably win that game. And I know the penalty call at the end of the third period was pretty poor, but you are allowed to kill off a penalty. You have one of the better penalty kills in the league. You cannot allow the Columbus Bootjackets power play, which I will admit has been a bit hot lately. You cannot allow that power play to go two for two against you

and win the special team's battle. The Penguins penalty kill for as good it has been this year, it's been pretty poor these last three to four games, and that needs to change as well. But yet again, Pat, they let another game slip away. You cannot be giving away points at this time a year, especially if you want to sneak in to that final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, that effort to end the game is not good enough.

It's unacceptable and you need to play better, especially against a team that is fighting with you in the standings. Well, just like Tristan Jari fumbled the puck behind the net, I got to give you some grief because you fumbled the Steve Dangle line. If you're a goaltender, tend the goal. I was waiting for you to do it because. you, well, let's just say, you're better at it than I am for that reference. But, but yes. And you touched on before we even get into the analysis of the game itself,

you hit the nail on the head. We have been talking on this show about how in the last few weeks with them climbing out of the basement of the league and getting themselves into the playoff fight, we said, just keep stacking points. Because if you keep stacking points with the teams around you falling apart, you will climb up the standings. Now that we've made that climb, we're on the other side of the mountain where now you're giving points away. Because you have a bunch of teams log jammed for what is essentially going to be one wild card spot.

I know that there isn't that much distance right now between the first and second wild card spots in the east. But when you compare the two divisions and just how tight they all are, you essentially are fighting for one spot because there is going to either be a fourth place team in the metro that snatches up that first wildcard spot or a fourth place team in the Atlantic that snatches up that first wild card spot. And then it's everybody else fighting for that one spot. So throwing this game away in the last eight minutes and then not being able to get that second point because listen, I still think you, I agree with everybody overall that you needed the two clean points. But in this moment when you're battling with all these teams, every point is precious.

So if it becomes a three point game, you want to be the team that gets the two points and not the one. And for the third straight game, they find themselves as the team who doesn't get that second point. Had you been able to secure that win in regulation, you'd be three points up on Columbus right now. and Pat, and you'd be in that final wild card spot, all by yourself for today. Again, it's just the lack of attention to detail, because for the first half of that third period, they were playing great defensively. Jari was even making some saves, but then he loses focus, loses his concentration with the second goal.

The third goal, I'm not really going to pin on him that much just because the penalty kill was playing way too passive. That's been a problem these last few games. way too much passiveness from the penalty kill. This penalty kill is at its best when they're being aggressive. They're getting into shooting lanes, blocking those shots, and everything else. They're not doing any of that. No, and I don't think that the penguins can or have the ability to be that lovely power kill that a lot of teams have,

like Florida, like Carolina, where they press you at every single stop. but you're right. They have been extremely passive over the past few weeks on the penalty kill. They're kind of doing what we lamented last year with the power play, where they're going to certain spots, whether they're playing. And if you notice, the penguins switch it up, depending on the team that they play. Sometimes they play a diamond.

Sometimes they play a box. But regardless of the system that they're playing, the last few games, guys get to their spots and they just stay there. It doesn't mean that you have to get pulled out of position, but you have to be willing to challenge the player possessing the puck at the point of attack. Otherwise, you get what we've seen the last few games where they're getting clean

shooting lanes or they're able to transition the puck from down low to up high or across the box or the diamond. And until they start clogging up these lanes and getting a little bit more aggressive, we're going to keep seeing these outcomes. Right. and they were just giving away free zone entries again like candy last night that's not good enough either you see with some of the other top penalty kills right they're so stingy at the blue line i don't need as you said i don't need the penguins to have you know that power kill like carolina it would be great

if they did but i don't think they have the personnel for it but you can't be giving away free zone entries like that especially at the end of the third period where you have to kill off that power play before Columbus is going to put the extra attacker on there. What I was noticing with that penalty kill specifically was that they were way too passive and they were just giving away free zone injuries and allowing the blue jackets to really do whatever they wanted in the offensive zone. Tristan Jari was kind of on an island. And we'll discuss Jari a bit more in the second segment when we discuss the

goaltending at large because the Penguins have been getting some fairly rotten goaltending for this entire season. Yeah, Jari has been a bit better in quotation marks that's come up from Wilkesbury, But again, he's still not close to the level that I want him to be at. And the same goes with Alecindelkevich. But again, special teams, especially the penalty kill. The power play was great yet again last night. But the penalty kill has got to be better.

But what really sucks about this game, Pat, is that the Penguins wasted some really great performances. Ricard Raquel, 20 goals in 42 games. Guys on a 40 goal pace this year, man. And they're really wasting it, if I'm being honest. I know they're technically in the race, but what he is doing right now is blowing away everyone's expectations that they had from heading into this year. I did not come close to thinking that he was going to be on a 40 goal pace at this point in the season. He was once again fantastic. That release to make it two to one was gorgeous.

Then Crosby just steals Cole Cillinger's lunch money, spends it himself, and then gets it to Raquel for the third goal. Another really nice release. Crosby was once again fantastic. And we got a shout out Eric Carlson once again. That pass as well to get it to Raquel for that second goal to make it two to one was gorgeous. The way that he was moving the puck in the offensive zone was great. He was a one man breakout from his own zone. That was I think one of Carlson's best games as a penguin this year.

And it stinks that they wasted that and the performances from both Crosby and Raquel. Carlson's heating up, man. Yeah. I mean, this is the Carlson that we were hoping to get two years ago when the trade went down. This is what you wanted to see out of Eric Carlson. And to the Raquel point, yeah, 40 goal pace. And maybe he does keep it up. Maybe he doesn't.

But he's shooting at nearly 20% at this season. And we're well, we're not well past. We're right at the halfway mark of the season. So he might not cold down because like that's a giant sample. size this entire half of the season. But his high watermark was years ago in 1617. Crazy to say that that was years ago. With Anaheim in 71 games, he shot 18.6%. And in that season, he topped out at 33. So I do think that you look at Raquel's game so far this season. And the fundamentals are there for this to continue because he's doing a lot of things right. He's not.

getting garbage goals. They're not bouncing off a kneecap and into the net. He's not just getting garbage goals left and right. You look at one of his goals last night. That was a rocket. And that is the definition of a goal scorer's goal because he came down the wing. He saw where he wanted to put it. And he fitted into a window that not a lot of shooters can hit. And got to give props to Merzleekins from last night. He played a very solid game. It was not a high event. game, but in some big moments, he made some big saves. So Raquel being able to score a goal like that when a goalie is playing to that level, extremely impressive.

It is funny how each time we talk about, you know, teams goalies that are struggling, they do go out there and play fairly well against the thingless. But hey, I'm just trying to give you all the numbers, what the facts say. That's what I want to do on the show. That's what you want to do on this show. I'm not trying to jinx this at all. I know there's the hashtag. We did have a comment on yesterday's episode of someone after the game said,

every time Hunter brings this up, that goalie goes out and does well. And yes, we are going to give Hunter grief for that because stop cursing this team. But also in a realistic way, it's the national hockey league guys. Even bad players have good games. It just stinks that it seems to keep happening against the penguins. Yeah, I mean, especially in overtime where Merzleekins just robs Crosby with his glove. And in the waning seconds, Rob's brought. Ryan Russ when he goes to his patented move. I'm just like, come on, man. Do we really got to do this?

But penguins, they get the point. They lose in the shootout. And that'll do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, we're to discuss more about this game, including the goaltending with Tristanjari. And yes, we are going to at least maybe do a mini rant about the shootouts and how really poor the penguins are with them. Because honestly, you can make a fair argument that you could turn the game off when it goes to a shootout because of how poor the penguins are playing in shootouts these last few seasons. But again, before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is Fandul.

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I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host, Patrick Dam. So, we do have to, again, do a deeper dive with Tristan Jari. It's kind of getting comical at this point that he is allowing a goal on the first shot he faces almost every other start. Brian Metzer had the tweet this morning,

and it's ugly people. I will say that. It is a really gross stat. So over his 19 starts this season, Tristan Jari, he has given up at least one goal with the first shot he has faced, or excuse me, with the first four shots that he has faced 13 times. So six goals that he has given up on the first shot of a game,

that's number one, three on the second shot of a game, two on the third, and two on the fourth. It's getting pretty ridiculous at this point. I will say the first one last night, I really can't blame him that much just considering the penalty kill was again, way too passive. You're letting a guy stand right in front of the net. Really not too much sorry can do there, but it is kind of strange that he is giving up a goal basically every start on at least one of his first four shots. It feels like, again, in terms of the first shot he faces,

it's almost every other start at this point. But the second goal, he has these weird mental lapses where he loses concentration, he loses focus, he's not confident, puck goes in the back of the net, and then in the shootout. And this goes, I think, for both him and Adelkevich this year, but really a lot with Jari lately, especially with the last couple of shootouts.

He just, he looks lost with. these. He doesn't look like he knows where the shooter is going. He feels like he's juggling too many things in his brain when a shooter is coming in. And when you have a goalie like that, giving up too many goals in the shootout, combine that with penguin players who really don't know what they're doing in shootouts. It's a bad combination. And that leads to a shootout loss every single time. And as I joked in the first segment, you can basically turn off the game once it gets to a shootout because this team never really wins shootouts anymore. It's baffling because, well, let me start with Jari.

Like you said, the, the meme of he gives up a goal on the first shot. Last night, we already talked about the PK. There's nothing he can do on that. They basically let a guy stand in front on contested. He gets a good tip. And that's going to go in the net a lot more often than it doesn't. And it comes back to this for me when it comes to. Jari. I think his play has improved since he's come back from Wokes Bear Scranton.

The problem is, we talked about this before. You look at so many of his performances over the last month or so, and you end up saying the same thing seemingly every time. Played a good game, but he probably wants this insert goal here back. And that happened again last night. The goal, where he fumbles the puck behind the net, it's just one laps here or there that kills him every game. If he can work that out, I'm a lot more confident in him being the starter, maybe not for a long time,

but at the very least, being serviceable until they move him. But he's got to find a way to get rid of that lapse because you're pretty much guaranteeing that the other team is going to get at least one goal they probably shouldn't have. and yeah, the Penguins offense, at least their top six, has been pretty good this year, but you can't always count on them to bail that out. Eventually, he's got to have a game where, yeah, maybe he gives up three or four goals,

but you look at it and go, hey, there was a defensive breakdown, or it was a good tip, or end of the day, it's NHL shooters. Sometimes we just talked about it with Ricard Raquel. Sometimes a guy just comes down and beat you. and that happens in the NHL, especially this year when goaltending has been almost historically bad. So all of that considered, I've liked his game since he came back, but he's got to get rid of the one goal of game where you just think, man, he should have had that one or he shouldn't have made that decision.

So he works that out. I'm a lot more confident in what this team can do, but it's such a gigantic asterisk. That's the thing. Like, is he ever going to work that out, though? I feel like he kind of is who he is at this point. There's really no surprises with his game. You know what you're going to get.

We have seen this for the last several seasons. And until the penguins at some point probably find a way to get rid of them because I think you would agree with this. I don't think he's finishing that contract here. And Pittsburgh, I think they're going to move them at some point. Until they figure out something to do with him, whether, you know, it's trading him. waving him, benching him, this is what you're going to get with him.

This is the goalie that he is. And it's unfortunate because, as I keep saying, all they really need is average goaltending with no weird mental lapses. But it seems like no matter which goaltender is in there, they're not able to get that average goaltending. And there's at least one mental lapse or there's one goal, a game where either a goalie will be like, man, I wish I would have had that one. Because even Nadelcovic was saying that after the Carolina game,

He even said to the media, yeah, there was one or two in there that I wish I had back. I talked about the overtime goal where I felt he let out too much of a juicy rebound. Man, I mean, if you cut some of that stuff out, they'd be higher up in this endings right now. I really feel like with better goaltending. I really feel like that's been one of their biggest issues this year. And, you know, they have a guy in the minors right now that I feel like is NH already. I know that him and Larson are kind of trading punches in Wilkesbury. Blumquist, of course, that is.

But I feel like at some point, whether it's later this season, but especially next season, they need to figure out a way to get this kid up here and get him more starts because I know the sample size was small, but he was their best goaltender when he was playing this year. He really was. And it's kind of wild that essentially both of the penguins goalies this year are mirroring one another. Yeah. Because at the beginning of the year, they were. were both just bad. They were just straight up bad. There was no other way to describe it. And they both

have marginally improved throughout the last month or so, but they both have had that same exact problem. There's the one goal, just the one that you go, he should have had that or he made a mistake or whatever else you want to describe it as. So if it was just jari and Nadelcovich was putting together at least average starts you probably throw him out there more but they're having the same exact struggle so it's really for mike sullivan and the coaching staff just to pick your poison you've got to let one of them you have to keep playing both of them until one or the other figures it out and takes the net but neither of them seem to want to do that the last thing i want to touch on though and i mentioned this briefly on marshal monday i know that we're not going to get this

anytime soon because the NHL is so resistant to change. But players are just done with the shootout. They're just done with it. And that goes for goalies. That goes for players. You can see it in the body language in shootouts. And it's not just the penguins. It's not just the blue jackets.

It's every team in the league. They get to a shootout. When was the last time you really remember seeing a highlight real shootout goal? Where somebody goes in and makes them crazy move and scores a highlight real goal, it hasn't happened in a really long time because they're just going through the motions. I know the Blue Jackets social media accounts kind of joked that two of their goals were mirror images, but why would they not be? It's just what everybody is doing in the shootouts now.

Goleys don't really seem to care about it anymore. Players don't really seem to care about it anymore. They just want to get it done over with and go home. So if this is the effort you're getting out of players and goalies, for your decisive moment of the game, you got to make a change. And I know that the NHL hates it and they don't want to do it anymore.

If you're not going to have effort in this, at the very least, make three on three overtime, 10 minutes. And if nobody scores at the end of 10 minutes, just bring back ties. Because who cares? Who was the coach that said, play three on three until you can't anymore? Was it torts?

I was going to say, if you can't figure out it said play it until they, die. I don't know what we're even doing here. Yes, it was torts. That's, that's what I figured. Yeah, I thought it was towards, but I wanted to just run it by you to make sure. But, hey, you could just run three on three until someone scores. It could be a little while considering that, you know, teams will take the puck out of the offensive zone and try to, you know, cycle back. But, hey, I think I would still rather watch that than a shoot out, because you're right. It's old. It's boring. I had a couple of people coming into my mentions last night on Twitter,

and they're like, well, why is Sidney Crosby, you know, just so bad a shootouts now? I just don't think he likes them. That's the biggest thing. Like, you saw him try to make a move last night, which is nice. He usually just comes in, tries to go Gloveside or Five Hole, but then he makes a move and then he loses the puck. But you can just tell, I think with him, obviously, again, top five player of all time, but he's lost a little bit of his confidence with the shootout just because of, A, he doesn't like it, and B, I think he hasn't been.

scoring as much in recent years as he used to in the shootout. But I had another person come in and saying like, well, why are you sending out all the veterans and the old guys and stuff? They really have no choice, people. I mean, who else do you want them to send out in this situation? Gany Malkin didn't play last night, but he wasn't practice today, which was good news, so it doesn't look like that injury. Is that serious?

But who do you want them to send out? That's not Ricardo Rekyll, who is usually actually pretty good in the shootouts, Sidney Crosby, Brian Rust, Crystal Tang, who, who literally also makes the same move every time, forehand, which hardly works anymore, or Eric Carlson. Truly, Pat, can you name anyone who you'd rather want out there? I guess Michael Bunting, considering how hot he is. I will say the fact that he really didn't get that much three-on-three overtime time

was pretty dumb by Mike Sullivan. He's been your best player this last week, hint-in for Royer Helmet Wednesday coming up in the final segment. And the fact that he did not get a lot of ice time and overtime is pathetic, if you ask me. And one more thought before we headed to the final break here. Yes, Epo Yardv, really nice bounce back last night, coming back in the lineup for the first time in a month.

You look at the underlying numbers for his line with Drew O'Connor and Kevin Hayes. 18 shot attempts for, 10 shot attempts against for that line. Four scoring chances for, three scoring chances against. 59% expected goals for rate. Two high danger chances for, no high danger chances against. give me more of that line for this next game. They cooked last night. That can be a chaos line.

That's literally what it can be, where they're not going to light up the score sheet, but they're also not going to give anything up. And they're just going to play it a billion miles an hour for 45 seconds to 75 seconds and just run you a little bit ragged. And that's something this team's missed for a while. I know it gets memed and joked about in a lot of serious hockey circles, but there is something to be said for an energy line,

a line that just goes out, causes chaos, plays fast, and then you bring out the big guns to capitalize on that. So I liked that Lions game a lot last night. It's good to see that the underlying numbers confirm that, but I thought they looked really good, and I liked Pooey Arvys bounce back. Now the challenge for him is to put it together for two, three, four, five, six games because we know that's where it's struggled.

He can't do this for two to three games and then disappear for two to three games. Well, this is also a Mike Sullivan to, you know, keeping them line up. But did you have any other thoughts on my little mini shootout ran or anything else you want to say about this game in general? Just get rid of the shootout, man. I'm so done with it. I'm so done with it. Hey, I hear you, even if the penguins were winning every shootout, I'd agree with you because I don't like it still stinks. I don't like it at all.

If there's, I guess one more thing I wanted to add, and it's not really. a big rant about officiating because I went into that last week after the Red Wings game. It's just that can we please stop officiating to the score of the game? Like that Blake Lazot call, again, people. The penguins should be able to kill that off. The only kill has not been good lately. That's where most of my blame goes. But if that game was tied, we all know that ref was not going to call that penalty.

If the penguins were down, we all know the the ref was not going to call that penalty. So please stop officiating to the score of. the game. I hate it. It's been going on throughout my lifetime even before I was alive. I can't stand it. But that would do it for the second segment coming up to end the show. You all know what time it is. It's Warrior Helmet Wednesday. Pat and I are going to give out our player of the week for the Warrior Helmet for this last week of Penguins hockey. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our final sponsor and that is game time. I love going to live events, whether it's sports, music, theater, or comedy. And one of my favorite

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What time is it? It's game time. All right. We're back here in this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host Patrick Dam. So, Pat, it's time for the Warrior Helmet to give out for this week. and I'm fairly sure we both know who this is going to. This is two weeks in a row of the same player getting it,

and it's very much deserved. And that player is Michael Bunting. Scores yet again on Tuesday, scored in Carolina. By the way, find me someone who loves doing something as much as Michael Bunting loves celebrating goals. His celebrations are awesome.

He celebrates like he just won the Stanley Cup after every goal. I love it. And he has been such a rock for the penguins these last several weeks, continues to score virtually on a nightly basis. He's play on the power play, especially in front of the net, aka his office, has been nothing short of spectacular.

I think he's arguably the biggest reason why the power play continues to be so hot is because teams don't know how to handle his presence in front of the net and how he's able to clean up the garbage. He's also really good in that bumper spot as well. But Pat, easy choice. for me, Michael Bunting. Oh yeah. I'm right there with you. This is the Michael Bunting this team needs. He's been shot out of a cannon for a long time now. And again, I know that I'm a memed for being a Mike Sullivan defender, but that healthy scratching looks like it worked. Message sent,

message received. Since he's come back to the lineup, he has played like Michael Bunting. He's been scoring goals. He's causing havoc. He is a. million miles an hour, and he's being a pest again. We have seen it for the last few games. He's getting into the face of other teams. He's causing chaos in front of the net. He is causing a lot of defensemen and opposing players to worry more about how can I get back at Michael bunting other than how can I win this game. So love his game so far. And Hunter, I'm going to blow this segment up real quick because we do have some breaking NHL news. It's not about the penguins, but since I said the NHL doesn't love to innovate or do anything fun, they have

announced something that basically told me to shove it. So next season, the NHL Winter Classic in 2026 will be going to a non-traditional place. It will be the New York Rangers taking on the Florida Panthers in Miami at Lone Depot Park. So the N. NHL decided we're going to stay in a baseball stadium, but what if we do it in Florida? So this is going to be pretty darn cool. You're going to close the roof for that NHL? I sure hope so, right? Hey, they played outdoor games in LA about a decade ago.

So I think they can pull this off. I'm fairly sure Kiss played a concert for fans at that one of them. If I'm not mistaken, I believe they did. I think Green Day was also there for one of those. as well. Maybe I'm mistaken on that, but I know Kiss was there for one of those two, but I probably think they're going to close the roof considering the community in Miami, but who knows? And then there's also, you, did you mention the stadium series game that they're doing? I was going to get to that too. They're also playing a stadium series game in Tampa with the

Tampa Bay Lightning and the Boston Bruins. So if we're going to be honest, if we're going to bash them when they do dumb things, we got to give them credit when they do smart things. this is how you get eyeballs back on the winter classic. You put it in a non-traditional place. You put it in a unique place. You make people think, wait, they're playing outdoor hockey in Florida. This is going to be cool. So kudos to the NHL for not going,

what if we put the game in a football or baseball stadium in the Midwest? I bet people would watch that. Great job by the NHL on this. This is going to be an end. And here's the other thing. it's not Chicago or Pittsburgh. So first teams you haven't done it, they're going to be in it. I will say, I like that the Panthers are hosting it,

but I would have preferred not the Rangers there. Give me the Battle of Florida for the Winter Classic, man. That would have been a bit better than the NHL. I will say, cool new location. The Panthers are playing in it. But man, Panthers Lightning, that would have been awesome. And I am glad that they realize January 2nd for it. Great idea.

because going up against the college football playoff, that's a death wish for the NHL. Like you're going to get slaughtered in terms of ratings with the 12 team playoff now. You've got the quarterfinals. You got the Rose Bowl on January 1st. Easy decision to do it on January 2nd where you have the,

probably the entire sporting world coming in to watch that as opposed to literally, Pat, December 31st, you have the winner classic, but the Penn State game was that day. So trying to go up against college football. Again, you're just going to get crushed. fun. And here's going to be the other really fun thing. Yeah. You said that are they going to shut the, are they going to close the roof in Florida? That's not going to be an option in Tampa Bay because they are going to Raymond James Stadium. That's right about the Tampa Bay one. Guys, I was mainly focusing on Miami because I know they can close the roof for the Marlins Park. But it is cool that they're going to where the Buccaneers play. I think the baseball stadium there is really, it was banged up by a. Yeah.

that was really badly damaged in the hurricane. So, but still, this is going to be pretty fun. Yes, I'm excited for those two outdoor games. I am very much hoping that they do well. But I think that I'll do it for today's episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with a fresh episode for you all on Thursday to preview this big game against the penguins and oilers and detail how the penguins can slow it out. Edmonton's attack and really break this long losing streak against the Oilers.

And then we'll recap that for you all on Friday. And then starting next week, pretty big announcement, all episodes starting next Monday for the foreseeable future will be posting between 11 a.m. Eastern time and noon Eastern time. Pat, you want to tell everyone why that is? Finally getting a new work schedule. I will be working nights Monday through Friday. So that means Hunter and I will be able to get these episodes out every day.

like he said between 11 and noon Eastern time. We'll be recording the morning of every single day. So we'll be able to get these episodes out to you in a timely manner, whether it's for game previews, recaps, or any breaking news. So starting next week, it'll start on Monday. You can expect locked on penguins at 11, between 11 and noon every single day. Put it in your Google calendar. Put it in your iPhone reminders.

Between 11 and noon, Monday through Friday, locked on penguins. make us part of that daily routine. Yeah, we're super excited about it. The only time that posting time will be different is, well, A, a holiday or B, one or both of us is on vacation, or we had to move something around or something like that. But again, starting next Monday, 11 a.m. to noon will be the posting time for episodes for the foreseeable future. But again, that will do it for today's episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. We'll talk with you all on Thursday.